. George Steinbrenners way is gone. You cant do it that way anymore. Thats why we made the Aroldis Chapman deal with them. Embrace the suck. Build the contender.The Cubs can now go back to being the power they once were, for from 1906 to 1945 Chicago went to the World Series 10 times and won it

BOSTON -- The Toronto Raptors face the always dreaded back-to-back when they visit the Boston Celtics Friday night.But while the Raptors, who won at home Thursday night, and their potent backcourt combo of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry have to face two games in two nights, they wont have to face Celtics star Isaiah Thomas.Bostons Little Big Man, averaging 26 points and 6.2 assists per game, will miss his second straight game with a groin strain. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection Wednesday and will accompany the team on a coming two-game trip but it is not known when he might play.Its just day to day, team president Danny Ainge told 98.5 The Sports Hub Thursday. He is a warrior. He loves to play. Hell be back faster than most players would be back after an injury. But at the same time, we really have to be careful with Isaiah for the long haul and make sure that he doesnt come back and re-injure it.Thomas would have faced a tough test in DeRozan and Lowry, who combined for 52 points and 16 assists -- DeRozan, the new franchise leader in games played, with eight rebounds -- in Thursday nights home win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.Lowry was 5-for-7 and the team 12-for-27 from 3-point range -- the eighth straight game the Raptors (15-7) have hit 10 or more treys. Toronto was also guilty of just eight turnovers in the win.Jonas Valanciunas chipped in a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Raptors, who bring a 6-3 road record into Fridays game between two teams in the conversation for being the second-best team in the Eastern Conference, behind the Cleveland Cavaliers.The Raptors trailed by one entering the fourth quarter before turning it on.We just picked it up. We kicked in our experience with how we have to win games, said DeRozan. We cant underestimate a team like that that plays extremely hard. They jumped out on us. We had to fight back the whole game and into the fourth quarter. We just tried to put everything together, execute on both ends and pull out the victory.Playing without Thomas and against an Orlando Magic team coming off a 4-1 road trip, the Celtics fell behind by eight points in the first quarter and by one at halftime but won by 30 and showed great ball movement in a more balanced attack.Whenever we have somebody down we come together and try to figure out a game plan, said Avery Bradley, who scored 23 points in the win that lifted the Celtics to 13-9 on the season. And our game plan was to get it done on the defensive end and make sure we are moving the ball on the offensive end.Moving the ball around, the Celtics scored 58 of their 117 points in the paint.Like Ive said before, were always trying to attack the paint first, said Boston coach Brad Stevens. One of the things we want to do, especially in Isaiahs absence is play through our bigs and through the post.The Raptors took last seasons series between the Atlantic Division teams 3-1, splitting the two games in Boston.Asked where setting the team record for games played -- passing Morris Peterson -- ranks for him personally, DeRozan said, Umm, all-time best right now. Having such a high regard for an organization, any type of record and only being 27 years old and leading the franchise in whatever stat it may be is definitely a blessing.Jeff Bagwell Jersey Large .ca NHL Power Rankings for the second straight week, ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Colorado Avalanche. Authentic Custom Astros Jersey . -- Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Farmar will be out for roughly four weeks after tearing his left hamstring. http://www.customastrosjersey.com/ . The return match will take place next Wednesday. Udinese leads Fiorentina 2-1 in the other semifinal. Napoli staged a second-half comeback from two goals down after Gervinhos opener and a stunning strike from Kevin Strootman. Cheap Custom Astros Jersey . "Jeff is a hard worker who was an important special-teams contributor for us last season," said Stamps GM John Hufnagel. Cheap Astros Jerseys .com) - Richie Incognito has reportedly been admitted to a psychiatric care unit in Arizona.This story appears in ESPN The Magazines Nov. 28 Tall Ball Issue. Subscribe today!It has been a few weeks now, and the Chicago Cubs are still World Series champions. And if history is any guide, everything familiar about the identity of the fan base and organization will be erased as the price of that title. The Cubs can no longer mask a century of incompetence with curses, afternoon drinking and low expectations. Theyve always had the resources of a superpower -- and now they have to start acting like one.Having witnessed the same shift in Boston, Theo Epstein knows this better than most. After almost 100 years of failure, the Red Sox still do business now the same as they did before winning the World Series in 2004-last winter, they signed David Price to a seven-year, $217 million free agent contract, just as they signed Manny Ramirez to an eight-year, $160 million contract in December 2000. But the national sympathy for their eternal heartbreak is gone. Even before Game 7, there was nothing cute or disadvantaged about the Cubs either, as evidenced by their enviable ability to sign Jason Heyward to an eight-year, $184 million contract-and bench him during the World Series.The Red Sox marketed and sold themselves as a ragtag band of rebels fighting both the supernatural and the omnipotent Yankees. Fans of the Rays, who happened to be the real underdogs, even coined a term for Bostons sly deception, referring to them as the Just as Evil Empire. Chicago, like Boston 12 years ago, can no longer claim the image of underdog on the field-especially since the Cubs are far from underdogs on the balance sheet, where they rake in profits. An identity change is coming, and they should embrace it.In this money game, with no salary cap and limited revenue-sharing, the Cubs, in the third-biggest market in the country, should have been dominant for decades. Instead, they were baseballs family screwup, partying with the trust fund money, winding up on academic probation. The generations of fans desperate for a winner have certainly suffered since 1946, but ownership certainly did not. The Cubs have been one of the richest teams in baseball. The team sold in 2009 for $845 million and in March was estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.2 billion, fifth best iin MLB.ddddddddddddThe lovable loser narrative was lucrative-it sold lots of tickets, beer and T-shirts and allowed an enormous fan base to feel sorry for itself-but in reality, the Cubs were cursed only in one way: by their own ownership mediocrity.Today, they have the opportunity to be the dominant team in the National League-and probably in baseball-for years to come. In Epstein, they have a president of baseball operations who knows how to build a farm system so well he can take big gambles on free agents, and the Ricketts familys enormous resources can help the team survive even a deal like Heywards. With old money but a new-school attitude, baseball wants its teams built the Epstein way, lest they face oppressive luxury tax penalties.You have to embrace the suck, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told me earlier this year. Look at Theo and the Cubs. They had money, but they built the farm system, lost and lost, and told their fan base the payoff was coming. George Steinbrenners way is gone. You cant do it that way anymore. Thats why we made the Aroldis Chapman deal with them. Embrace the suck. Build the contender.The Cubs can now go back to being the power they once were, for from 1906 to 1945 Chicago went to the World Series 10 times and won it twice. But the opportunity to shed the underdog image will come at an enormous cost: the identity the franchise has cultivated for the past half-century as a great place to start the bachelorette party before the North Side pub crawl kicks into high gear.Perhaps Chicagos transition to superpower wont be as harsh as in Boston, where agony was replaced by pink hats, expensive seats and gentrification (though Wrigleyville already has a leg up on the latter). Maybe the team will maintain its old identity even if it dominates, because so many of its celebrity fans are comedians, and because the beer has always flowed during weekday baseball when everyone else is being killed by office meetings. As expectations undoubtedly rise for the Cubs to stay on top, maybe Chicago will do something truly remarkable: win big while still being best known for having a good time. ' ' '